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Conversation

Iona Italia, PhD

No one has ever seriously challenged James Lindsay on his Twitter behaviour. The man who co-wrote a book on how to have productive conversations often spends the entire day on here (sometimes tweeting 20 or 30 times an hour) & its all just insults & insane hyperbole.

Quote Tweet

Replying to @fullydavid and @IonaItalia

Gently challenged Lindsay on his Twitter behaviour in this (otherwise positive) piece. He melted down and sent me long explainers on why he wouldn't ever speak to me again. At around an hour in or so. youtu.be/08RoXYz9_UU

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Iona Italia, PhD

He says repeatedly, when pressed, that this platform isn't designed for serious conversation; this is the game & the way we need to play it, etc. But no one has to spend their entire life online snarking at strangers & repeating the same "your mom" jokes hundreds of times a day.

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Iona Italia, PhD

It's one thing to speak truth to power. But trashing your own reputation in this way (& alienating & upsetting many former friends, including real life friends) is a choice. It's painful to watch & all justifications ring hollow.

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Iona Italia, PhD

I would be less angry if this affected only him. But he co-authored books with other people. His narcissistic, self-indulgent trashy behaviour not only makes people stop taking him seriously, but affects people like Helen who worked with him back when his views were saner.

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Iona Italia, PhD

To be frank, even independent of the content, it's usually a red flag when someone is tweeting so much that it is probably taking up more time than they are spending doing things in meatspace. (A few writers who use this as a watercooler, like JMS, excepted).

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Iona Italia, PhD

Seeing that

liked this tweet: if you haven't already made one, James would be a great subject for one of your stupendously good video dissections.

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ngl I wonder if maybe he has a... idk brain tumor or imbalance or something? Having disposition change so radically can be a sign of health problems.

3:43 PM · Apr 22, 2022

Replying to

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It sounds silly but I genuinely think it's a case of staring too long into the abyss and the abyss stared back. He looked long enough for bullshit to tear into that eventually he just sunk to the low level that he had spent years criticizing. Could be wrong, just my take.

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I imagine it's some type of medication.

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